Troy-Bilt Polar Blast 13045 - $2999.00

Heavy, wet deep or drifted-no snow is too much for a POLAR BLAST snow thrower. The 13045 model boasts our widest clearing width - a full 45 inches - and our most powerful engine to make even the biggest job manageable.

Summary:
This is a great machine to have & run if you've got a very long, very wide area to cover with large snowdrifts/plow ins. It wll handle the job.
I originally bought it for when I was living in an old farmhouse and when the plows came by in front of the drive in tandem on a 4 lane highway at 50 mph I'd have a 5' wet salty drift to deal with.
My little 1974 Simplicity 5 HP., 28" took me a forever to clean up those messes. No problem for the 13045.
I have since moved to another place with a shorter, narrower drive on a 2 lane road and find that the Troy Bilt is too much overkill for what my present needs are.
I'm going to try to sell it this fall, and go back to the 5 HP.
Loupy
I

Strengths:
Powerful, easy to start. (once small problems sorted out- see below)
Does an excellent job of clearing heavy drifts when set up right (runners, speed, etc.)
Impresses the neighbours - it's the biggest and meanest looking Badboy on the block.

Weaknesses:
Yery heavy to maneuver, even with the assisted steering paddles.
Also very heavy to lean back to balance on tires in order to work in tight quarters.
Assembly and operatioal checkout at the store I bought it at was poor - Headlights wire was left disconnected - choke throttle valve was sticking in carb.body (I had to carfully file out the imperfections on the diecast body in order to free up it's operation) - recoil starter rope pulled broke after using it 5 times-the right outside wheel fell off after 4 runs.

Summary:
This was a tough New England Winter and I have a rather long driveway. This machine made short work of it. Thsi machine gets a STRAIGHT A.

Strengths:
I bought this monstor about 6 years ago used private party. It starts right up each year whether with either the electric start or pull start. It handles the job and has performed flawlessly.

Summary:
I find that it is a very easy machine to work on for replacing belts and pulleys It has never refused to start on the first pull if I USE THE CHOKE AND PRIMER. i BOUGHT THIS MACHINE NEW IN 2003 AND HAVE TAKEN CARE OF MY YARD AND MY NEIGHBORS YARD {BOTH ARE AVERAGE SIZE FOR NORTHERN Maine} forgoing on 9 years now ....and I still love this machine

Strengths:
loved this machine from day ONE. Has plenty of power even in deep snow...all you need to do is use the lower gears.. have had NO trouble with steerig,it practicaly steers itself if you dont fight it,and use the steering assist triggers

Weaknesses:
The only weaknesses I found is it kind of does eat auger belts and I have broken two flanges on the double pulley

Summary:
Will buy again. Only thing better for me would be a tractor with a blower which would be 5x's the cost and need a lot more space to store.

Strengths:
I have tried it all and this thing with some chains on it will move some serious snow fast. We have a road base driveway high in the mountains, not asphalt so I had to adjust the skids up so as not to suck up rocks. In three years the friction wheel needed to be replaced and I blew a belt once when I got a log in it. Other than that it starts on the first pull every time, even after sitting all summer or in the cold cold weather.

Weaknesses:
Needs a larger size friction wheel and better sheer pins.
At first it was a bit tricky to get the hang of "driving" the thing; no problem for me now.

Weaknesses:
Auger belt !
Auger belt broke in every heavy snow which fortunately wasn't every year.
Contacted Gates a couple years ago & told to use a Gates PREDATOR® belt
That is, use Gates AP42 to replace 954-0222A Troy-bilt(MTD)auger belt
(btw it's AP42 Gates not an A42)
Yesterday we had a heavy wet snow on and snowblower worked like a champ !
Had 6” of wet snow then rain leaving about 4” of slushy snow.
Could hear that the engine was at full throttle & full load for 2 hours.
Had it on slowest speed & still had to stop for the auger to catch up or engine would have stalled. Could not have had a heavier load for testing.